When Bond Arms first released the slim, lightweight aluminum framed Stinger series of pistols in 2021, I hoped that the company would offer a .327 Fed. Mag. version. As of last year, it had yet to happen. So, I mixed and matched a Stubby stainless steel frame, an extended B6 resin grip and a.327 Fed. Mag. accessory barrel to assemble a pistol that I lovingly dubbed The Wasp. The finished pistol tipped the scales at 17 oz. Although it was the slimmest and smallest .327 Fed. Mag. pistol at the time, it was still about the same weight as a Ruger LCR revolver in the same caliber.
The Fireball is assembled using a lightweight aluminum frame.
This year Bond Arms expanded the aluminum-framed Stinger lineup to include the Fireball models. They are so named because of the impressively bright muzzle blast which can attend the calibers these pistols fire. The two caliber options include .22 Mag and, low and behold, the long-awaited .327 Fed. Mag.! Fireballs ship with the extended B6 resin grip installed at the factory. Unlike my at-home assembled Wasp project, the Fireball ships ready to use with the features I've been looking for. But more importantly, the aluminum frame shifts the unloaded weight down from 17 to 13.3 oz.
The B6 resin extended grip is textured with palm swells for improved purchase.
Something I learned in the course of testing the Wasp, and .32-caliber revolvers, is that firing full-power .327 Fed. Mag. cartridges from small, lightweight handguns can be a real workout in the recoil department. Don't let the .32-caliber bullets fool you. The high end of the .327 Fed. Mag. cartridge's performance range overlaps with the lower end of the .357 Mag. revolver round. The result is plenty of kick for those of us who enjoy that sort of thing.
This pistol ships with a .327 Fed. Mag. barrel installed.
For those who prefer less-spicy shooting range sessions, an effective recoil-reduction option for .327 Fed. Mag. handguns is to switch the ammunition to the softer shooting .32 H&R Mag. cartridge. Modern .32 H&R Mag. loads can deliver defensive performance comparable to standard pressure .38 Special rounds while generating somewhere around 20 to 30 percent less recoil. That's a significant difference and well worth exploring for a pistol that is as lightweight as this one. But investing in a somewhat obscure and sometimes hard-to-find 40-year-old revolver round like the .32 H&R Mag. may not be the best fit for some folks.
The hammer features a lever that alternates between the two firing pins.
This is why, along with the Fireball double-barrel pistol, I requested one of Bond Arms' Stinger accessory barrels chambered in .380 ACP. Also known as the 9mm Browning and the 9mm Short, the .380 ACP (Automatic Colt Pistol) was developed by John Moses Browning in 1908. Although it was considered to be the popular 9mm pistol cartridge’s homely little brother, these days the .380 ACP is a standard caliber option for pocket pistols, like the Ruger LCP Max, and for a variety of compact-size semi-automatics. Its popularity makes for a more diverse and easier-to-find ammunition selection.
All of the controls are made of stainless steel
As a member of the Bond Arms Stinger line-up, the Fireball is a hinged break-action, double-barrel pistol with a single-action trigger. The one-piece free-floated stainless steel double barrel features a matte finish, an integral front sight blade, and a rounded hinge port. The top of the hinge is flattened to serve as the pistol's rear sight.
Accessory barrels with chambers sized for rimmed revolver rounds are fitted with a left-side ejector. This ejector is used to press spent cartridge cases out of both chambers at the same time. The barrels built for recessed rim semi-automatic pistol cartridges do not have an ejector. Instead, a notch is cut out of the left side of the chambers for spent cases to be lifted out using a thumbnail or a spent cartridge case rim.
The hinged barrel swings up to expose the chambers for loading and unloading.
The barrel is secured to the aluminum frame via a removable hinge pin. This allows for quick and easy caliber conversions using accessory barrels. With the pistol pointed in a safe direction, verify that it is completely unloaded by engaging the push button safety, pressing down on the release lever and swinging open the barrel. With the barrel open, use a hex wrench to remove the hinge pin and lift the existing barrel out of the frame. Set the new barrel into the frame and then reinstall the frame pin. Now the pistol is ready to fire a different cartridge.
Barrels can be traded out by removing the threaded hinge pin.
The Stinger-type frame is milled from 7075 aluminum, treated with a matte black hard-coat anodized finish, and features an integral trigger guard with a rounded profile. The controls and appointments are made from stainless steel, including the firing pins, firing pin block, barrel-release lever, push-button cross-bolt safety, hammer and trigger. All the key stress points feature steel-on-steel contacts which increases the working life of the aluminum frame.
Revolver cartridge barrels (left) have an extractor while semi-automatic caliber barrels (ight) have notched chambers.
It's worth noting here that Bond Arms' pistol triggers operate differently than the vast majority of handguns on the market today. The small trigger's movement is more of a downward roll toward the trigger guard than a swing backward toward the grip. Applying straight-back pressure on the trigger makes it feel much heavier than it is. By imagining that your finger is rolling the trigger down, towards the ground it will feel much easier to pull. In this case, the Fireball's trigger weighed in at 5 lbs. 14 oz.
The Sof-Tuck 2.0 is a comfortable IWB holster.
Although Bond Arms offers a fairly diverse selection of holsters for their standard-size frame models, the company has been slow to add much in the way of holsters for the Stingers. One of the reasons for this is that there is already a good selection of aftermarket pocket holsters made for small-frame revolvers that fit the Stingers well enough to do the trick. But recently they have added the in-the-waistband Sof-Tuck 2.0 to their catalog. Made for Bond Arms by DeSantis Gunhide, this version of the Sof-Tuck is made of polyurethane-lined leather with a reinforced top lip for easier reholstering. The 360-degree adjustable C-Clip polymer belt clip can be adjusted for holster cant and allows shirts to be tucked in between the holster and the belt line. I found this holster to be easy to adjust and all-day comfortable to wear.
DoubleTap Ammunition provides the five loads tested with this pistol.
When getting ready to take the Fireball to the shooting range, DoubleTap Ammunition provided a one-stop shopping solution for test ammunition. This company offers two top shelf .32 H&R Mag. loads that I've worked with before, including a self-defense 60-gr. all-copper hollow point and a 120-gr. hard cast lead flat point designed for deep penetration. For the .380 ACP barrel, I went with a 95-gr. controlled expansion jacketed hollow point and a 100-gr. full-metal jacket match load. These cartridges were tested for accuracy by firing a total of 10 rounds using both barrels at a distance of 7 yards. Each barrel's 5-shot group was measured for size along with the distance between the upper and lower groups. Bullet velocity was measured using a Garmin Xero C1 Pro chronograph. Here are the results:
Shifting to .32 H&R Mag. for use with a .327 Fed. Mag. barrel made this range session much less of a wrist-bending exercise. Of the two rounds, the 60-gr. hollow point was the most mild and manageable. On the .380 ACP side, the 95-gr. hollow point had a more intense, 9 mm cartridge-like level of recoil than I would have expected. It was still manageable, but the much slower 100-gr. full-metal jacket was the soft shooter of the test set.
Bond Arms has received customer reports over the years that their little pistols are often loaded with snakeshot cartridges and taken along on outdoor adventures for protection from venomous critters and pests. This year DoubleTap released a new series of revolver cartridges, aptly named the DT SnakeShot series. The line-up includes a .32 H&R Mag. cartridge filled with a 90-gr. payload consisting of 100 pieces of lead birdshot and a 40-gr. lead disk with a listed velocity of 1,000 fps.
Snakeshot loads fire fine birdshot backed by a hard cast lead disk.
For the DT Snakeshot testings, one round was fired from each barrel into three different 34-inch by 22-inch paper targets, with Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C 8-inch reactive bullseyes affixed in the center, at distances of 2, 5 and 7 yards. I saw positive results when testing these loads with revolvers, so I was curious to see how they would do when fired through an over/under double barrel.
With the target set at 2 yards, the two barrels printed distinctive 7" birdshot patterns with the lead disks landing dead center of those patterns. At 5 yards, the birdshot patterns opened up to around 15" in size with the lead disks landing in the lower half of that pattern. At 7 yards the birdshot was dispersed from the top to the bottom of the paper target making the pattern too thin to be all that effective. Interestingly, one lead disk hit the black of the bullseye with the other landing 4" off of the bullseye to the left. Did the disk spin-off to the left, or did I flinch a bit? Due to the relatively limited nature of the test, it's hard to say. But overall, the results point to an optimal performance range of between 2 to 5 yards, just like short barrel revolvers.
These targets show the DT Snakeshot load patterns at 2, 5 and 7 yards.
In this age of subcompact, polymer-framed pistols, the usefulness of over/under derringers as defensive handguns continues to be debated. But for those who do see them as a good fit for their needs, or those of us who simply enjoy shooting them, the Bond Arms Stinger Fireball offers the benefits of being durable, reliable, lightweight and easy to use. And it's good to know that with this company's interchangeable accessory barrels in various calibers, the Stingers' levels of felt recoil can be tuned to more comfortable levels.
Manufacturer: Bond Arms
Model: Stinger Fireball (BASL-FB)
Action: Single-Action Double Barrel
Caliber: .327 Fed. Mag.
Barrel: Tip-Up Stainless Steel, Matte Finish
Frame: 7075 Aluminum, Milled Billet
Frame Finish: Matte Black Hard Coat Anodized
Trigger Guard: Integral
Controls: Stainless Steel
Grips: Textured and Extended B6 Resin
Front Sight: Fixed Blade
Rear Sight: Notch
Safeties: Push-Button Cross Bolt, Release Lever Lock, Rebounding Hammer
Trigger Pull: 5 lbs. 14 oz.
Barrel Length: 3”
Overall Length: 5”
Height: 3.80”
Width: 0.7" Barrel & Frame
Weight: 13.3 oz. Unloaded
Capacity: 2 Rounds
Accessories: Owner's Manual
MSRP: $399
Accessory Barrels: Stinger .380 ACP (L-SLBL-300-380ACP) $140
Holster: Bond Arms Sof-Tuck 2.0 (BAH-IST-S30-BB-R-CP) $50
